Lune |
The purpose of this thread is twofold.
1. I have definitely been around the block a time or two with RPGs but I have not been to a big convention like this in 15 years (I was at Origins 25th). I want to make sure that I do not miss bringing something or doing something that may seem obvious to veterans but is easily overlooked by con newbs like me.
I can't tell you how excited I am to be attending. I have posted about this elsewhere but I am bringing my son as well as a sort of gamer rite of passage. I am downright giddy beyond logic thought right about now. I have no doubt that in my anxiousness that I will forget something, miss something or worse. I would rather like to try to avoid that, hence this first purpose.
2. I assume some of you are going. I wouldn't mind meeting some of you. I bet I know what room you are going to be in. Let this thread serve as a common ground for those who are going to the con and do not wish to be anti-social with those on the boards. For my part I will say that if anyone wants to say hello to me feel free to send me a private message and I can give you my phone number. I'm sure it wont be hard to find me as we will likely be spending a lot of time in the same room as one another. Maybe we will even be at the same table!
If you would rather not be so personal as to exchange phone numbers, etc. That is understandable. I could just give a description of myself. I'll probably fairly difficult to miss. I can give my name so if you happen to see my name tag (assuming they have those there?) you will recognize me as well. Heck, if you dislike me based solely on posts on these boards and just want to say it to my face, I don't mind that either. ;) (...although you may have second thoughts after meeting me in person.)
Lune |
A moderate may see this and have a knee-jerk reaction of wanting to move this to the general forum. I ask that this not be done for two reasons. First, I am actually asking for advice. And second, I believe the Advice forum gets more traffic at least from the people from the boards that I know best and would have any desire to meet.
organized |
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->forget something, miss something or worse.
All of that will happen at Gencon, but it should balance out. You will also find or experience some great things you didn't plan on.
The only things you can permanently forget are forms of currency, government identification, and character sheets/records. Everything else is theoretically replaceable, especially at Gencon. Might also want to grab your life sustaining medications and/or devices, as the local pharmacy down town has some really lame hours.
Unfortunately it's impossible to do it all. I lie awake at night wondering things like do I attend the zombie parade, or another Society special? Late night gallivanting with who knows what game, or should I be true to my 8:00 AM slot? Scottys or the Ram? These are the truly difficult questions at Gencon.
organized |
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My advice in regards to not missing anything->
Take Thursday afternoon or evening to just walk around the Con. Not just the convention center, but the surrounding hotels and sidewalks. Amazing how every hotel has their own halls filled with events, and the many games going on in lobbies and even hallway floors. Check out the Veteran's Memorial at the city circle a few blocks away. Spend a little time on one the benches near Elf Park. That's were I usually chat up strangers and always enjoy a bit of time relaxing.
for the curious:
Elf Park
Can't wait till I arrive tomorrow AM. :)
Lune |
Dangit. It got moved anyway. Ah well, it still shows up in advice.
Jeff: Scotties is a local hang? Noted. It hasn't started yet so they still are able to post. Unless they are at Scotties I guess. ;)
Maybe I'll check it out tonight. Omigosh, so excited!
organized: Yeah, you'd think hearing that would enhance my calm. No such luck!
I dunno about doing it all, but I don't want to miss some of the better things.
Gulrokkius |
You can GenCon vicariously through me, Imbicatus! At least once I will give a battle cry in your name. :)
...there is always the "sick" option. I'm such a good influence.
Went last year. It was awesome. Best part was rolling a 'paizo' (20) on a d20 and JJ letting me skip the store line. Huzzah! Tweeted about it. Lol
I would recommend doing a True Dungeon event. I enjoyed the puzzle based version over the combat one but YMMV. Zombie survival boffer was great too - good workout swinging a sword. :)
Have fun.
Lune |
You know... it strikes me that I should have been posting about this long before now. The insight of the board goers here at Paizo would have been priceless in determining which events to sign up for.
Signed up for Hickman's 2nd killer breakfast and Dan the Bard. Those any good? I can't imagine anything with Tracy could be terrible.
Jason S |
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My advice is the following:
1) Do some events that you're interested in (even if you find that you're interested at the convention!). For your first convention, 50-75% of your time maximum.
2) Just walk around for a few hours, especially on Saturday afternoon, soaking everything in and looking at stuff. Costumes/parade, Cardhalla, different booths
3) Spend time in the dealer hall walking around, doing game demos, buy some cool stuff. You could probably do this the entire convention without doing anything else.
4) Check out or participate in the zombie walk on Friday night.
5) Late at night in the convention halls, there are awesome games of "Are you a Werewolf". There are also free sessions to learn to play. Do it!
6) There are so many people at the convention, it's hard to randomly meet up with people you know who are there, even if you're always in the PF room. It's a big room!
7) Leave time for possible naps if possible.
8) Most of all get good sleep each night, go to bed at midnight. Gencon will take it's toll one way or the other and it's better to get quality sleep than to miss events because of naps or because you're sick.
9) There are lots of PF people at Scotties this afternoon, but none at night and people will be playing games at hotel rooms. I advise you look at the PFS "local play" thread for Scotties or go there are try to hook up with people.
Wish I could be there, have fun!
organized |
it strikes me that I should have been posting about this long before now.
Now we can reference it for future years. This is my ninth Gencon since 2006 and I'm always interested in hearing other peoples Gencon tips, or about must attend events.
Favorite restaurants?
The Rathskeller and the Slippery Noodle stand out.